Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Silver

Today's blog is from an email that my mother sent me. Perhaps some of you have seen this before...but I had not.

Malachi 3:3 says: "He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver."
This verse puzzled some women in a Bible study and they wondered what this statement meant about the character and nature of God. One of the women offered to find out the process of refining silver and get back to the group at their next Bible Study.

That week, the woman called a silversmith and made an appointment to watch him at work. She didn't mention anything about the reason for her interest beyond her curiosity about the process of refining silver. As she watched the silversmith, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up. He explained that in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flames were hottest as to burn away all the impurities.

The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot;then she thought again about the verse that says: "He sits as a refiner and purifier of silver." She asked the silversmith if it was true that he had to sit there in front of t he fire the whole time the silver was being refined.

The man answered that yes, he not only had to sit there holding the silver, but he had to keep his eyes on the silver the entire time it was in the fire. If the silver was left a ! moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed.
The woman was silent for a moment. Then she asked the silversmith, "How do you know when the silver is fully refined?"

He smiled at her and answered, "Oh, that's easy -- when I see my image in it"

If today you are feeling the heat of the fire, remember that God has his eye on you and will keep watching you until He sees His image in you.

Wow, when He sees His image in me. Pretty amazing.

6 comments:

Kristi Kurtz said...

Amen. I have seen that before but it is a great reminder that when God seems far and life seems hard...he still has us in the palm of his hands and he has not left. This is good for me to read this morning and to remember. Love you Nance. Cant wait to hug you today at church.

Anonymous said...

Thanks Nancy. I had not seen that before. It's so hard to forget that when we are going through hard times or times when we just don't feel like anyone is paying attention, that God is always there for us. It's pretty cool to put it in the perspective of God working so hard to make us into the image of Him and what He wants us to be. That was defintely something I needed to hear this morning. Thank you.

Scott Donnelly said...

Awesome! Never seen that one... BRILLIANT!

Anonymous said...

That was neat! Fire is hot today, but He is just refining me.

Thanks for sharing!!

Love ya!

Anonymous said...

I love that! Thanks Nancy for sharing, it makes so much sense. Even when we may feel like we're getting "burned" by that fire - God is watching us, holding us, getting us through it until we are refined. Amazing to think of it that way. No wonder I am so hot all the time - a lot of refining to do, eh? :)

mittin92 said...

That was great. thanks for passing it along.
Mitchell